THE ELEPHANT. 75 



executes them with punctuality and zeal. He bends the knee 

 for the accommodation of those who wish to mount upon his 

 back, suffers himself to be harnessed, and seems to delight in the 

 finery of his trappings. 



These animals are used in drawing chariots, wagons, and 

 various sorts of machines, one elephant drawing as much as six 

 horses, and are of great use in carrying large quantities of lug- 

 gage across rivers. They can travel near a hundred miles a day, 

 and fifty or sixty regularly, without any violent effort. 



The elephant is as magnanimous as he is mild, and ever will- 

 ing to exert his extraordinary strength. We are told, that in 

 India, where these creatures were once employed in launching 

 ships, one of them was directed to force into the water a large 

 vessel, which proving a task superior to his strength, the master 

 said, in an angry tone, " Take away that lazy beast, and bring 

 another." The poor elephant immediately redoubled its efforts, 

 fractured its skull, and died on the spot. 



The Indians have, from time immemorial, employed elephants 

 in their wars : Porus, with eighty-five of them, opposed Alex- 

 ander's passage over the Hydaspes. M. Buffon, with very great 

 appearance of probability, supposes, that it was some of the 

 elephants taken by that monarch in his Indian expedition, and 

 transported into Greece, that Pyrrhus afterwards brought against 

 the Romans. Since the introduction of fire-arms, however, ele- 

 phants have been of little use in deciding the contests of men ; 

 for, being terrified by the explosion of artillery, they are soon 

 thrown into confusion, and, becoming ungovernable, often tram- 

 ple down those ranks which they were brought into the field to 

 defend. They are now chiefly kept for the purposes of labour, 

 or of magnificent parade. They are likewise made use of in the 

 East, as the executioners of criminals a business which they 

 perform with singular dexterity, breaking, at the word of com- 

 mand, the limbs of the condemned wretch with their trunks, or 

 trampling him under their feet, and prolonging his sufferings, or 

 accelerating his death, according to the directions of their keepers. 



In Siam, Pegu, Tonquin, and Cochin China, elephants are still 

 esteemed a valuable auxiliary in war, as well as an essential ap- 

 pendage to despotic magnificence and ostentatious parade ; and 

 the princes of those countries are attended on their tours by 

 some hundreds of these enormous animals, for the purpose of 

 conveying the ladies of the seraglio, as well as the immense 

 quantities of baggage, which those eastern sovereigns always 

 carry along with them. 



The manner of taking and taming animals of so prodigious a 

 strength as might seem to set all human power at defiance, is so 

 curious, that it merits a few moments' attention. 



